Agaith Arebennian – The Black Librarian is finished

All of my miniature creation is driven by the background and artwork, to create something that moves the imagery to new unexpected directions, while being completely aligned to the essence of a given army, race or archetype.

I’ve mentioned my deep affection to the Eldar race before. Reading the Codexes growing up, admiring the art and pondering the mysteries of their technology, the Eldar were in a league of elegance and mastery of a whole other level. Take Wraithbone, the organic super material shaped and grown in to Eldar products using psychic powers as an example.

“Wraithbone is the primary construction material used by the Eldar, and the staple of their psycho-technical engineering. It is a form of crystallized psychic energy that can exist as a solid in realspacebrought forth from the Warp and shaped by an Eldar concentrating his thoughts and intent upon it. All Eldars are able to influence Wraithbone to a certain extent; for instance, most Eldars walking the Path of the Artisan will use Wraithbone in order to create the pieces of art or instruments they desire. However, truely complex constructions (such as functional weapons or whole voidships) can only be brought into existence by the Eldar Bonesingers; those specialised craftsmen who focus on understanding and mastering the intricacies of creating, growing and shaping the Wraithbone through the application of their innate psychic power.” (http://warhammer40k.wikia.com/wiki/Wraithbone)

It’s this sort of creation I’m trying to tune in to.

In the Recent Eldar Codexes, the studio artists have gone back to color old black and white art digitally, an imagery and color world very fittingly ethereal, mysterious and alien for this Race. I wanted to explore this crazy idea in miniatures to once more shake away from how I’ve done things in the past.

The heaviness of mastering the Vlka Fenryka, storm clouds, oil paints and steel, has been replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, stars, psycho-technical engineering and wraith bone. I painted a Black and white miniature, quite carefully, then made a sacrifice to the Laughing God, and inking, shading, and general experimentation craziness ensued – trying hard to be bold, and not suffocate the miniature with technique and norm. Each and every model will help define this approach, but the impact is here now, on the very first one. The plan is to produce and exquisite collection of Eldar models that each bring a fresh take to familiar archetypes or create a completely new one, like the next model I am working on.

I could go on for quite a bit, but better let the photos do the talking. I should note the Base took quite some time to figure out to get enough of the hues of the figure, enough menace to be a hidden craft world and still provide a neutral non overpowering platform for the model.

Agaith Arebennian is finished and to quote my son who is drawing next to me. “I put a lot of love in to my work.”

Thank you Alex. It’s an exciting start for me personally, desperately needs that second and third model to see if this approach works and how much I can define and hone the approach, and explore it further.

I was thinking about this a little more last night; I think this is probably the closest that you’ve come in miniature form to the kind of painting by goodbrush (?) that you admire. Whereas some of the Good/Bad work feels quite different in tone (almost watercoloury), this really nails what you initially set out to do so many moons ago. I wonder if it’s something as simple as the colour palate? Or perhaps the SW gave you the diversion that you needed for a while? Who knows. Whatever it is, it has worked.

What makes me happy is intentionally setting out to achieve these things – from watercolorly to digital. It’s much harder than one would think to discard what works and start again. The hardest one is still to be finished, midway to craziness and that is the third installment of my +I+ trilogy Illuminati Aquila that set out to pay with gold as inspired by your cover art! I can see the road with them, and it’s pretty all consuming in time and effort and needs the right time for me to return to them. I look at them regularly in their half finished state and plan on the finish.

My God! You managed to capture perfectly the impression of a black&white post produced gw illustration, that’s crazy skill! your works exude atmosphere and character and that is what make them true art instead of “just” minis. Greetings!

Thanks Matteo. That’s the goal, to spearhead in my own insignificant way the evolution of this art form to more impressionist, emotional, experimental direction. The world is already full of stunning technical exercises by professional miniature painters, even the best of which are very hard to tell apart from each other. There are obvious exceptions to that, works of sublime technique and stunning originality, but on the whole this art form needs to be critically challenged.

What a stunning piece of work!
You get a standing applaude for the curage to go into unknown and see it thru!
I can understand the temptation of going back to the rules every artist has set for themself but it really pays of!

I also have to say that i really like the way you write! I feel like i can follow your decisions when it comes to the choices you make while painting!